Drug Link

November 3, 1985

LIMA, PERU — It was an ultimatum, says Agustin Mantilla, Peru's chief narcotics fighter. The United States threatened to withhold or slow up financial assistance for its anti-drug war unless Peru changes its hard-line stance on payment of foreign debt, said the vice minister of the interior. He claimed Carlton Turner, President Reagan's adviser on drug abuse policy, linked further anti-drug aid to foreign debt payments during a visit last month. Mantilla said he was told U.S. aid hinged partly ''on our behavior in the paying of the foreign debt.''